The Effect Of Moral Self-regulation On Hedonic Consumption

Aside from utilitarian and practical consumptions,people also pursue hedonic consumptions that will bring affectionate,emotional and joyful feelings in daily life.Years of researches on hedonic consumption and the topic of moral have found out that moral may influence hedonic consumption.For example,after doing something moral,people may prefer a hedonic consumption as a reward,which is referred as hedonic consumption's licensing effect by researchers.After consuming hedonic foods,cleaning hands reduces consumers' feeling of guilt,which can be included in the topic of hedonic consumption's cleansing effect.Theories of moral researches have built the theoretical frame of moral self-regulation,based on which this research would systematically study the effect of moral self-regulation on hedonic consumption.In another word,this research would study the relationship between moral actions,immoral actions and hedonic consumption,the influencing mechanism under the relationship,and answer the question,is hedonic consumption something immoral?Study 1 uses the experimental paradigm of recalling moral/immoral actions,after which subjects are told to fill in a hedonic consumption spending task.Also,subjects could choose a gift as the subject fee,as a way to study their consumption decisions.The results find that after recalling recent moral actions,people will spend more money on hedonic consumptions and also choose the hedonic options as subject fee at a higher percentage.While after recalling recent immoral actions,people choose hedonic subject fee gifts at a lower percentage.The results verify hedonic consumptions'licensing effect and cleansing effect.In study 2,subjects are convinced to complete a consumption task,in which they can choose between hedonic and utilitarian consumption options.After that,subjects have to finish a moral/immoral action measuring situational questionnaire.The results show that choosing a hedonic consumption option will lead to a more moral action intention as compensation,while choosing a utilitarian consumption causes more immoral actions.The results,combined with those of study 1,illustrate that hedonic consumption and moral actions are compensatory behaviors that they influence each other in a negative feedback mechanism.Study 3 activates subjects' positive and negative moral self-perception at first,and instructs them to finish the hedonic consumption spending task and subject fee gifts selection later.The results point out that activating one's positive moral self-perception results in a decrease of hedonic consumption spending,which shows a positive feedback relationship between positive moral self-perception and hedonic consumption.According to the theory of moral self-regulation and construal level theory,along with all the results in the studies,this research demonstrates the negative feedback relationship between hedonic consumption and specific moral actions,and the positive feedback relationship between positive moral self-perception and hedonic consumption.It could be declared that hedonic consumption is a compensatory and opposite action to specific moral actions,but scarcely does it affect immoral actions.That is,hedonic consumption is not something immoral.This research not only enriches the moral and hedonic consumption theories,but also provides valuable reference for hedonic consumption marketing methods.